Wednesday, July 20, 2016

Wonder why no sensible person can get through to climate change deniers?Astrophysicist Philip Judge is a Briton living in Longmont, Colorado who - according to a Denver Post bio spot from two months ago ('Scientist Pens Trilogy To Combat Doubters', May 16, p. 8A)- is "incensed about climate change doubters in recent years". Well, I mean just about every sensible person is so incensed, because trying to get through to these batshit crazy fools is like trying to make a hole in solid concrete with a pen. You will break the pen before you succeed. In the meantime, these uninformed, semi-educated twits - ranging in IQ from room temperature level to members of Intertel (like Kort Patterson) keep generating nonstop codswallop such as global warming is one huge "swindle" or "alarmist conspiracy". And pray tell who is behind this conspiracy? Well, all federal scientific agencies including NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) and NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) which are supposedly all part of one grand government-sponsored "alarmist" network to hood wink citizens. If only! If that were the only fact we'd truly have nothing to fret over.But as recent published data from NOAA and NASA have shown June global temperatures have now set a new global record "joining every other month so far this year". Both federal agencies, indeed, have shown the temperature increments to have resulted in the highest departures since global temperatures began in 1880 (according to NOAA).To be specific, NOAA revealed that globally -averaged temperatures in June were 1.62 F higher than the average across the 20th century. Meanwhile, NASA data showed globally averaged temperatures were 1.42 F above the average applicable to the years 1951 through 1980. But still there are numb nuts who truly believe there is a "global warming pause'. Of course, even before the string of new records Thomas Karl, Director of the National Centers for Environmental Information of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. (NOAA), had dispatched the warming pause nonsense. See e.g.http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2015/noaa-analysis-journal-science-no-slowdown-in-global-warming-in-recent-years.html
Judge is a senior scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder where's he's been for 25 years. He plans to change the climate doubters' brains by publishing a trilogy entitled "Ergo Sum". Already two works have been published, the 2nd 'Credo, Ergo Sum" (transl. "I believe, therefore I am") in April. The third and final volume will be out later in the year.

In the Post bio piece, Judge expresses deep concern about climate science doubters and their political motives. As well he should, given most have been caught in the maw of the ExxonMobil brain fuck machine so are no longer capable of thinking for themselves unless it's to conjure up some conspiracy theory about scientists colluding to get money for grants. Which is the biggest howler of all as I exposed earlier. In fact, bozos who latch onto this BS aren't even clear that scientists compete for grant money so it would not be in their interest to vindicate or reinforce the research of others - far less engage in a massive, networked conspiracy to snatch more money from taxpayers to attain one single goal.

According to the write up Judge felt compelled to write a story about the ethics of what's going on. He posed the central question that runs like a thread through all the books:

"What kind of person is willing to gamble the future of their grandchildren at the expense of today?"

Well, evidently, a hell of a lot of haughty, arrogant "economy first" deniers who - despite never even having taken a 1st year college thermal physics course such that they can pass a basic test, e.g.

Believe they have all the answers and that global warming is an "alarmist conspiracy". The core question, of course, is whether a trilogy can change the minds of such people. I doubt it. First, if they refuse to even read a relatively objective journal like 'Nature' or a web site like www.realclimate.org what makes anyone think they'd wade through a trilogy concerning the ethics of rejecting climate science? All the odds point to the books being ignored.

Second, this gets us to the primary impediment for these denier pseudo skeptics to even consider genuine science: they suffer from false knowledge syndrome. This leads them to collect — even invent — bad information to flesh out what they already believe. The classic case is the semi-educated dupe who by virtue of bad life decisions or experiences comes to believe "all liberals are liars". He then somehow finds Larry Schweikart's fishwrap book on '48 Liberal Lies About American History' and finds specious support for his false knowledge and bad insights. Classic confirmation bias.

In the case of a climate denier, say as one finds in the high IQ societies, you are typically looking at a libertarian or anti-government kook who distrusts everything about government, especially its scientific capabilities. Hence, he postulates wackadoodle scheit like gov't climate scientists engaged in a massive "conspiracy" to create alarm and thereby destroy the economic basis of the nation.. These turkeys never seem to process that if the runaway greenhouse emerges, our whole electric power grid- not to mention economic system that hinges on it - will be the first to go.

More to the point, as an example of the creation of bad information invoked for what one already believes, one need look no further than libertarian wannabe curmudgeon Kort Patterson bloviating about "celestial mechanics" being a key basis for climate change over the ages. (Based on the absurd Milankovitch hypothesis). Or his claim that "changes on the Sun" are behind it, long since torpedoed by numerous solar physics papers and studies.

Guys like this, impervious to actual insights and knowledge, will hold onto anything so that their precious economic world with its gratuitous consumption and GDP can continue indefinitely.

Basically, short of a brain transplant, you are not going to change their minds, though I do give Philip Judge props for his efforts. That's a lot of time invested in a trilogy of books aimed at climate change denier block heads for a likely tiny return on investment.

About Me

Specialized in space physics and solar physics, developed first astronomy curriculum for Caribbean secondary schools, has written thirteen books - the most recent:Fundamentals of Solar Physics. Also: Modern Physics: Notes, Problems and Solutions;:'Beyond Atheism, Beyond God', Astronomy & Astrophysics: Notes, Problems and Solutions', 'Physics Notes for Advanced Level&#39, Mathematical Excursions in Brane Space, Selected Analyses in Solar Flare Plasma Dynamics; and 'A History of Caribbean Secondary School Astronomy'. It details the background to my development and implementation of the first ever astronomy curriculum for secondary schools in the Caribbean.